The five steel items comprise rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil (HRC), cold-rolled coil (CRC) and medium plate. During the latest survey period, inventories of wire rod, HRC, CRC and medium plate all declined by varying degrees, while those of rebar saw an on-week rise of 1.3%, the findings showed.
Some domestic steel mills resumed operations after completing maintenance work on their steelmaking facilities, leading to further growth in finished steel output. Over August 14-20, total production of the five major steel products among these sampled mills registered 8.78 million tonnes, up for the fourth consecutive week by 0.7% on week.
However, steel demand from end-users remained lackluster overall with the persistent impact of high temperatures and frequent rainfalls across most regions of China, Global noted.
For example, the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 trading houses nationwide tracked by averaged 95,103 tonnes/day during August 14-20, slipping by 7,539 t/d or 7.3% from the previous week.
China's finished steel prices lost ground this week amid weak fundamentals and cooling market sentiment. As of August 20, the national average price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar under assessment came in at Yuan 3,338/tonne ($465/t) including the 13% VAT, falling by Yuan 82/t from one week ago. The same day, assessed the national average price of Q235 4.75mm HRC at Yuan 3,477/t including the 13% VAT, down Yuan 36/t on week.
On the other hand, inventories of the five major steel products held by Chinese traders continued to climb over the past week, with the total volume at warehouses in the 132 Chinese cities under tracking reaching 16.38 million tonnes by August 21, rising for the sixth straight week by 3% on week, according to the survey.
Table 1 Five major steel products stocks at mills (Aug 15-21)
Product | Volume ('000 t) | WoW (%) | MoM (%) | YoY (%) |
Rebar | 1,745.3 | 1.3% | 5.3% | 2.4% |
Wire rod | 477.8 | -1.5% | 14.5% | -26.2% |
HR sheet | 788.9 | -1.4% | 1.1% | -14.4% |
CR sheet | 387.3 | -2.2% | -2.7% | -12.2% |
Medium plate | 839.0 | -1.0% | -0.4% | 9.9% |
Total | 4,238.3 | -0.3% | 3.5% | -5.4% |
Table 2 Five major steel products stocks at traders (Aug 15-21)
Product | Volume (mln t) | WoW (%) | MoM (%) | YoY (%) |
Rebar | 6.43 | 3.0% | 12.7% | -11.3% |
Wire rod | 1.74 | 5.8% | 14.1% | -4.9% |
HR sheet | 3.83 | 2.8% | 8.2% | -23.6% |
CR sheet | 2.29 | 1.4% | 3.2% | 0.3% |
Medium plate | 2.08 | 2.6% | -0.4% | -28.6% |
Total | 16.38 | 3.0% | 8.6% | -15.1% |
Note:
1. Steel inventories at Chinese mills include rebar inventories at 137 mills, wire rod inventories at 92 mills, HRC inventories at 37 mills, CRC inventories at 29 mills and medium plate inventories at 37 mills.
2. Has started publishing the new set of data regarding traders' steel inventories since March 19 2020 to better represent the market with bigger sample sizes:
Rebar and wire rod: Sample size is increased to 429 warehouses in 132 Chinese cities from the previous 215 warehouses in 35 cities.
Hot-rolled coil (HRC): Sample size is increased to 194 warehouses in 55 cities from the previous 138 warehouses in 33 cities.
Cold-rolled coil (CRC): Sample size is increased to 182 warehouses in 29 cities from the previous 134 warehouses in 26 cities.
Medium plate: Sample size is increased to 217 warehouses in 65 cities from the previous 132 warehouses in 31 cities.
